The BGC has a distinguished track record of youth development programming. Through its youth initiatives, the BGC has created and administers after-school programs that help 125 students recover lost credits, receive online tutoring, and prepare for paid internships that, in turn, may lead to permanent jobs. Our youth programs echo the agenda laid out by President Obama in the New York Times: "We've got to focus not just on increasing graduation rates, but we've also got to make what's learned…more robust and more effective."
Community LEARNS is a partnership of the BGC, Wireless Neighborhoods, the Mt. Ararat Community Activity Center, One Vision One Life, and the Eastside Neighborhood Employment Center, providing "academics-first" after-school and summer educational, recreational, support, and employment services to Peabody and Schenley High School 9th to 12th graders. The 21st Century Program provides year-round after-school programs and day camps for Fort Pitt School students (K-5). The goal is to move students from sub-par to proficient academic performance, and to have structured recreation activities. Now, as the public schools in our neighborhoods experience declining enrollment and possible closure, we have identified the need to refocus our work to include advocacy for public school reform. At Pittsburgh Ft. Pitt ALA, the elementary school serving Garfield, we are working with the administration and other nonprofits (notably, Healcrest Urban Community Farm) to preserve the school for the neighborhood and to carve out a new identity for it, possibly as an environmental magnet school. On the high school level, we have spearheaded the formation of an on-going community stakeholder group made up of parents and other concerned East End residents to take on the challenge of determining the future of struggling Peabody High School. Watch a video of the January 2009 Peabody stakeholder meeting. Watch a video of the February 2009 Peabody stakeholder meeting. Doing this work involves training and empowering parents as advocates for the education of their children. As Pittsburgh Public Schools move away from the neighborhood school model and toward school choice, we need to answer the question: How do we transform our East End schools so that parents and students from across the city will select them? To this end, we are studying local charter schools to see what can be borrowed from their successes, and will host a forum for parents on the educational models of charter schools. We also sponsored a School Choice Fair in November 2009 during which representatives from local schools (public, private, parochial, and charter) discussed the mission of their schools, academic achievement levels, classroom size, school safety, after-school programs, transportation issues, and financial aid with parents and guardians.
We also have proven success as advocates for the health of our young people. The BGC has played a key role in the implementation and program expansion of the UPMC/St. Margaret Health Partnership, a consortium of neighborhood schools and health-care providers working to address the health disparities and gaps in services for area students. Some of the Partnership's successes include bringing diagnostic and screening programs into 5 elementary schools for students of low economic status, with a particular emphasis on seeing student needs met around asthma, dental care, mental health, and vaccinations.
The BGC's Youth Employment Program works with young adults ages 17 through 21, who are not in school and who have an interest in gaining paid work experience for bright futures in a wide variety of career opportunities. Included in the possibilities are entry-level positions in local hospitals such as UPMC St. Margaret, UPMC Shadyside, Children’s Home of Pittsburgh, and West Penn. There are also placement possibilities at financial institutions such as Bank of New York Mellon and Allegheny Valley Bank, and excellent local organizations and businesses such as The Union Project, Eastminster Presbyterian Church, the Quiet Storm, and 3RC Computer Clubhouse. Also, the BGC organizes a college/vocational fair at Peabody High School every spring. In 2009, the BGC's youth and adult employment services moved to a larger, shared space on Penn Avenue. This centrally located site includes a spacious computer lab, rooms for employment training sessions, and administrative offices. In addition, a mobile computer lab brings trainings and informational sessions directly to various locales throughout the East End, and plays a prominent role at two large-scale job/career fairs. It is important to us that the transition from the end of one’s high school years to the beginning of a career occur with few obstacles blocking the path to success.
With the arrival of UPMC/Children's Hospital to our neighborhood, and with more and more commercial development taking place in the East End, we expect the new career and employment center to become a regional hub for both first-time job seekers and for those who have lost their jobs, or are looking to move up the economic ladder. The goal is to help youths and adults in our neighborhoods think about "pursuing a career" rather than simply "having a job."
Mt. Ararat Community Activity Center
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